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The headlines say the durable goods new orders improved. The unadjusted three month rolling average improved this month and is now in expansion.

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Analyst Opinion of the Durable Goods Situation

Transport was the main driver this month. This series has wide swings monthly so our primary metric is the three month rolling average which improved and is now in expansion. The real issue here is that inflation is starting to grab in this sector making real growth much less than appears at face value. Also this month's data looks better because last month was revised down. Overall the trends are improving but far from the sense you get from the headlines.

The Federal Reserve's Durable Goods Industrial Production Index (seasonally adjusted) growth up 0.4 % month-over-month, up 0.6 % year-over-year [note that this is a series with moderate backward revision - and it uses production as a pulse point (not new orders or shipments)] - three month trend is decelerating, but the trend over the last year is relatively flat.

One final look at the Durable Goods data in our search for a slowing economy is for inventory buildup. Although this series is noisy, it appears inventory levels are currently elevated.

Unadjusted Inventory to Sales Ratio

Caveat on the Use of Durable Goods

The data when first released is subject to several months of revision. The revisions currently have been minor - making the initial headline data reasonably accurate in real time.

The data in this series is not inflation adjusted - and Econintersect adjusts using the appropriate BLS Producer Price Index for durable goods or uses Industrial Production (IP) - durable goods sub-index which is a non-monetary index.

As in most US Census reports, Econintersect does not agree with the seasonal adjustment methodology used and provides an alternate analysis. The issue is that the exceptionally large recession and subsequent economic roller coaster has caused data distortions that become exaggerated when the seasonal adjustment methodology uses several years of data. Further, Econintersect believes there is a New Normal seasonality and using data prior to the end of the recession for seasonal analysis could provide the wrong conclusion.

Econintersect determines the month-over-month change by subtracting the current month's year-over-year change from the previous month's year-over-year change. This is the best of the bad options available to determine month-over-month trends - as the preferred methodology would be to use multi-year data (but the New Normal effects and the Great Recession distort historical data).

Durable goods expenditure is a major element of GDP. Therefore may pundits look for enlightenment within the durable goods data for economic direction. To illustrate how durable goods new orders and backlog fits into a recession watch, the Fred graph below (produced based on August 2011 data) shows clearly that data trends down preceding a recession. Unfortunately, there are several false indications of recessions.

More importantly, durable goods as discussed in this post is not the durable goods of the consumer - as it includes business and government consumption while excluding imports. For a better understanding of consumer demand for durable goods, the BEA's Personal Consumption Expenditure's Durable Goods data series should be used:

Durable goods is not a good economic forecasting tool as it contains too many false warnings of economic contraction.

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